A photo-op orchestrated as part of the unveiling of Tory transit plans was derailed by TTC transit officers, who ordered Hudak, his team and assembled media off a subway train. They said the group didn’t have a permit to film on the vehicle and shut down the event.

Video posted on YouTube shows the officers arguing with campaign team members while Hudak smiles in the background.

After the incident, the Ontario PC twitter account lashed out at the officers, who are reportedly members of CUPE.

“CUPE workers stop Tim Hudak photo op on the TTC. They are only interested (in) themselves, not fixing transit for commuters,” the team tweeted.

Toronto Transit Commission spokesman Milly Bernal said the officers were enforcing TTC policy, which bars campaign events in “fare paid areas” during an election period. Regardless, the Tories hadn’t approached anyone at the TTC for permission for the press conference, she said.

Bernal said she believed the Kathleen Wynne press conference took place before the election was called, which is permitted by the City of Toronto.

“If the candidate wanted to have a media event on the subway (he) should have called us,” she said of Hudak, adding, “I don’t have any information that was done and I’m the media on-call person since Friday. That’s kind of strange on their part.”

Bernal also said the officers were not acting on behalf of a union.

“This is not a CUPE thing,” she said. “This is a TTC policy.”

CUPE spokesman Kevin Wilson said the union is trying to determine what transpired Sunday.

“At this time, we feel it’s appropriate for TTC management to address this and we believe they have at this time,” Wilson said.

Will Stewart, spokesman for Hudak’s campaign team, said the party took a look at the city rules and felt they didn’t need permission.

“We weren’t campaigning or canvassing,” he said. “We had no literature with us. We weren’t doing anything other than taking the subway ride to the event.”

Stewart said one of the TTC officers kept his foot in the subway car door, preventing it from closing and delaying riders. At that point, the Hudak camp decided to leave Wellesley station.

“We all piled back on the media bus and went and did the announcement,” he said. “The idea was to take public transportation to the public transportation announcement.”

Wynne’s campaign team issued a statement saying an April 14 media availability at a TTC station was both before the election and done by the book when it came to receiving permission.

This isn’t the first time the Tories have run afoul of campaigning rules on the TTC. During a hotly contested byelection in Etobicoke-Lakeshore last summer, Liberal Peter Milcyzn accused PC Doug Holyday of breaking city rules by campaigning in the “paid fare” section of a subway station.